RIYADH: The US’s Internal Revenue Service revealed that $3.5 billion in cryptocurrency was seized during the fiscal year 2021.
This represents 93 percent of all funds seized by the Criminal Investigation unit during the same time period.
The agency also expects to seize billions of dollars in cryptocurrency next year, according to Bitcoin.com.
“I expect a trend of crypto seizures to continue as we move forward into fiscal year 2022. We are seeing crypto involved in a number of our crimes as we move forward,” IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jim Lee said.
Crypto FOMO
Matt Comyn, CEO of the Australian multinational Commonwealth Bank, spoke about the fear of missing out when it comes to bitcoin and cryptocurrency in an interview with Bloomberg.
Comyn explained that while cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and speculative, banks need to be involved in crypto and blockchain technology.
“We see risks in participating, but we see bigger risks in not participating,” he said.
“We also don’t think that the sector and the technology is going away anytime soon. So we want to understand it, we want to provide a competitive offering to customers with the right disclosures around risks,” he added.
Daily trading
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency in trading internationally, traded lower on Monday, falling by 1.46 percent to $58,141 at 6:11 pm Riyadh time.
Ether, the second most traded cryptocurrency, traded at $4,235, down by 2.49 percent, according to data from Coindesk.
